During World War 2, US army & navy meteorologists name tropical cyclones after their wives, after having been introduced to a novel, Storm, in which a junior meteorologist named extra-tropical storms after girl friends.

In 1947 the US Air Force Hurricane Office in Miami started using the then new international phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, ...) when naming hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean.

When the international phonetic alphabet changed in 1952 (to Alpha, Beta, Charlie ,..) The US Weather Bureau initially started using the armed services practice of using women's names.

In 1975 the Australian Bureau of Meteorology started using a system alternating womens and mens names. After political pressure, in 1979 by the

US National Hurricane Center (NHC) requested that the WMO's Region IV Hurricane Committee switch to a hurricane name list that alternated men's and women's names following the practice adopted by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology in 1975.

IN the North West Pacific, womens names were first used in 1945. Mens names started being used in 1979. Now they use a series of Asian names, contributed by nations and territories that are members of the WMO Typhoon Committee.